Check if xml node has attribute

Question

I have an XML file which is generated from a windows application like below "Repport.xml":

<ArrayOfAutoReportXML>  
    <AutoReportXML ReportName="Report1" ReportID="1" />
    <AutoReportXML ReportName="Report2" ReportID="2" />
    <AutoReportXML ReportName="Report3" ReportID="3" />
    <AutoReportXML ReportName="Report4" ReportID="4" />
    <AutoReportXML ReportName="Report5" ReportID="5" />
</ArrayOfAutoReportXML>

I am trying to check if ReportName already exists and i am trying below code to do that:

using (FileStream fs = new FileStream("Repport.xml", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.ReadWrite, FileShare.ReadWrite))
{
    XDocument doc = XDocument.Load(fs);

    string attrReportname = (string) doc.Elements("AutoReportXML")
        .Where(ox => ox.Attribute("ReportName").Value.ToString() == ReportName)
        .FirstOrDefault();
}

And attrReportName is null.

Charles Mager · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-18 16:33:39Z

1

The issue is that Elements will only find the immediate child Elements from the current context. The only element returned by doc.Elements() would be ArrayOfAutoReportXML.

What you need is Descendants, which traverse all elements in the document.

To check if a report exists based on that attribute:

var reportExists = doc
    .Descendants("AutoReportXML")
    .Attributes("ReportName")
    .Any(x => x.Value == "Report1");

If you needed to check using more than one attribute:

var reportExists = doc
    .Descendants("AutoReportXML")
    .Any(x => (string)x.Attribute("ReportName") == "Report1" && 
              (int)x.Attribute("ReportID") == 1);

See this fiddle for a working demo.

edited May 18, 2016 at 16:33

answered May 18, 2016 at 16:21

Charles Mager

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3 Comments

Tan Over a year ago

how to check reportname and reportid more than one attribute.

Charles Mager Over a year ago

@Tan I've added a second example

Tan Over a year ago

thank you sir, it has become big headache for me for 20 minutes..thank you

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